Páginas

lunes, 30 de mayo de 2016

The European Commission has just released the European Digital Progress Report. It presents a set of horizontal chapters analysing developments in five different aspects (connectivity, digital skills, use of Internet, Integration of Digital Technology by businesses, Digital Public Services). It also contains country reports that shows the uneven development of the digital revolution in Europe.

International Digital Economy and Society Index

The I-DESI benchmarks the development of the digital economy and society in Europe against top world peers

Policy makers and regulators will certainly be among those who need an understanding a knowledge of the possibilities and effects of digital technologies. This need will not be restricted in the near future only to those in charge of the eGovernment services. Technology is pervasive and it is disrupting every sector, as we are seeing in the case of transport and lodging with the emerging of the shared economy services companies.

We badly need to train our politicians in digital technologies. We cannot afford policy errors due to a lack of digital competence in a world in global competition.The Strategic Policy Forum on Digital Entrepreneurship, a working group established by the European Commission, suggestsfor the purpose of provided the politicians with digital competences the creation of Digital Boot Camps for politicians.

Within one of the events organised by the Luxembourg Presidency of the EU Council, a pilot digital boot camp was held. The audience was composed mainly by labour and employment policy makers with a basic previous knowledge of digital technology. The policy makers debated on the economic and social impact of digital technologies with the background of six dynamic workshops. The practical sessions focused on smart cars, robots, software development, open and big data, 3d printing and cybersecurity set the right stage for a reflection on the consequences of digitalisation on employment.

However, digital boot camps as an isolated experience it is not enough. Besides this kind of immersive and inspiring experiences, it would be needed in-person training and online courses. Therefore, a trusted figure of a digital ambassador should be there to be the fellow travel of the policy makers towards the digital era. The digital ambassador would be also the key to bring together resources and facilitate the coordination with industry and academia for the purpose of policy makers digital capacitation. The central role of the digital ambassador demands independence from any vested interest or stakeholder group. In my opinion, a civil servant with a solid and extended digital knowledge would be the ideal person for this role.

The digital capacitation of the population looks as one of the main challenge for the forthcoming years. Among those who need this training, we need to pay special attention to policy makers in all the social and economic sectors. As the World Bank says in its last report, "Technology amplifies the impact of good (and bad) policies, so any failure to reform means falling further behind those who do reform". . The daunting task of the digital transformation of the society and the economy requires urgent and accurate policy measures. Either our politicians have the right tools for both or we will lose our future.

domingo, 22 de mayo de 2016

A policy paper published by the Jacques Delors Institut exploring how to reach higher productivity growth in EU. The author put forward the need to strengthen the single market in three areas: labour, finances and digital.

Connecting the world: Ten mechanisms for global inclusion

Global Internet growth is slowing down. Despite the ongoing digital revolution, some 56 percent of the world is still not online. The number of new Internet subscribers grew in single digits since 2013. The slowdown stems from barriers to Internet access that are created by deficiencies in the critical markets that deliver a meaningful Internet experience. This document describe some mechanisms so that the markets for connectivity, content creation, and retail remove these barriers to digital inclusion.

miércoles, 18 de mayo de 2016

Digital surveillance and the handling of personal data has been constantly in the papers since the Snowden revelations. The annoyance with the US authorities of the European governments and civil society have been growing since then. The more outstanding sign of this unrest was the annulment of the Safe Harbor agreement after the sentence of the Schrem case.

The digital globalisation show the limits of bilateral guarantees in the field of privacy. The scenario of a mesh of bilateral agreements looks as a unavoidable nightmare. Only a new approach based on an international global agreement would restore the trust on digital services in a global scale. And the only truth is that without trust the digital economy would not be able to survive as the driver of growth and well-being.

miércoles, 11 de mayo de 2016

Although digitalisation is changing things around us, we have not seen the big disruption yet. We have seen how the transport or entertainment have passed through radical changes, but those and other cases are isolated sectors and many other activities are still being developed like 20 or 30 years ago. The point of no return in digital transformation would be a digital disruption with transversal impact in all the social and economic activities. This great disruption is under development and it is called fintech.

Fintech will be something more than the digital disruption of the financial sector. Firstly, all our activities have in the base the access to capital and money is the main payment method for acquiring products and services. Fintech startups are making easier both at the same time and, therefore, they have the potential to change how we are developing all our activities.

Lastly, the spillover of financial sector digitization will bring the reduction on the demand of many services. To begin with, there will be a significant decrease in the number of branches. This will mean pressure on real estate activities in every corner of our cities and all the world services and retail commerce that flourish around the bank branches.

Fintech has the potential to be the final disruption for the pre-digital society. It will change how we develop all our activities, it could be the model for the transition to a society scarce of jobs and it will have an unpredictable spillover on other physical activities. The ingredients are now on the pot.

According with the better regulation principles, the last six months of 2015 the Commission published a serie of public consultations (that continued in 2016). A total of sixteen consultations have been developed following a not defined pattern. Some of the measures included in the communication were the object of several consultations (e.g. copyright or telco) while others were measures share the public consultation (e.g. cloud & platforms).

Some of the packets have fulfilled the expectations, but other have been a dissapointment. Among the latter, I include the copyright package. While everyone was expected a full review of the copyright framework, the European Commission presented only a tiny piece of regulation for digital content and a new roadmap for the never delivered copyright reform. The copyright package gives the impression that the EC is too cautious with the thorny issues. The impression could be consolidated if the leak of the communication on platforms is confirmed by the end of the month.

The DSM strategy was initially planned for the years 2015-2016. Therefore, all the actions planned should have been finished within six months. It should be noted that this does not mean that the DSM will be completed by the end of 2016. It only means that the EC would have put on the table all the ideas for completing the DSM. It should not be expected that any legislative proposal could be approval before the end of 2018. Even the smaller tiny piece of legislation will be complex to approve. For instance, the decission for the usage of the 700 MHz band was expected to be approved in six months (during the Netherlands Presidency) and right now we do not have a date for the vote in the Parliament.

But even it is hardly to expect that all the proposals for completing the DSM would be on the table before the end of 2016. Some of the package already contains reference of measures to be developed in 2017. Furthermore, some of the initiatives presented have been published with delay.

To sum up, we should recognise the efforts done by the EC but a realistic review could not overlook some signs of alert. First, the delay the implementation of the communication. Secondly, the long process of approval of an EU legislation (3,6 years on average) that will extend the real development of the DSM strategy until 2020 (at least). Now the question is if EU would be able to accelerate the process and deliver on time.

lunes, 2 de mayo de 2016

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) – State of Play

A report publishes by the European Commission which presents a break-down of progress made in the ongoing negotiation of a trade agreement between the EU and the United States, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). The eCommerce and Telco areas are under consolidation according with the report

Reducing Costs and Barriers for Businesses in the Single Market

The study publishes by the European Parliamentpoints that reducing business costs and regulatory and market barriers is necessary to complete the Single Market. However, monitoring of barriers and costs in the EU is piecemeal and unsystematic, quantification and clear identification of barriers and costs is lacking, which makes prioritisation of policy actions difficult. Resulting costs of slow reform process and vague initiatives with uncertain time horizons in the area of e-commerce alone amount to €748 billion.